James 1:22-25, “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.”
“Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only.”
When we put away the filthiness and the superfluity of naughtiness as mentioned in James 1:21, then we can with meekness receive the engrafted word. And what a need we have for God’s Word! After all, it is that which has the power to save your soul! God’s Word makes all the difference in you, but it only means something if you are a doer of the Word and not a hearer only.
Most Christians spend quite a bit of time “hearing” God’s Word, which is important for all people. Romans 10:17 tells us that “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” In order for us to believe we must hear. A few verses earlier in Romans 10, the question is asked, “How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?” Hearing the Word is necessary for faith in God.
Hearing is also necessary for Christian growth. We only become what we ought to by the careful hearing of God’s Word. As we listen to solid preaching and teaching, as we take Godly, Biblical counsel, especially as we study the Bible for ourselves, we are hearing the Word. The only way you can “study to shew thyself approved unto God” is by taking in Scripture through some form of “hearing.” In this sense, hearing the Word of God is any of several means of consumption. We must be good listeners to what God is trying to teach us.
But hearing is not enough on its own, we must be doers. Do we think that God gives us the instruction of His Word just to make a good point to us or just to say something interesting? Don’t you think that the “instruction in righteousness” is meant to make a change in us? Hearing God’s Word is a wonderful thing, but it should not stop in our ears. God’s Word should be lived out in our actions.
“Deceiving your own selves.”
Some Christians think themselves to be quite spiritual because of what they have taken in, but they deceive themselves. You can spend years being a hearer, but if you never become a doer then you haven’t really grown. When the knowledge of something is just in the head, a person is just a hearer, but when the knowledge affects the actions of a person, we would say they have taken it to heart.
We could give several different examples, but Scripture here gives a fantastic example of how the hearer deceives himself if he is not a doer.
Imagine this scenario. You wake up one morning after a particularly rough night of sleep and look in the mirror. The mirror, which tells you the truth no matter your feelings about it, shows how rough a night you truly had. Your hair is perma-pressed to an odd shape, your face has the impression of something you slept on, the remnant of dried drool is on your chin, and your breath is so bad you are certain you can actually see it in the mirror too! You are disgusted by what you see, but you turn away from the mirror and go your way, doing nothing to address the deficiencies you discovered. You might think you did something great by looking in the mirror, but you would be deceived if you did nothing to change what you saw.
As absurd as that scenario is, we do this spiritually far too often. We look into the mirror of God’s Word (as hearers of it) and see the mess of our lives. Maybe we see how we are too close to the world and that which is carnal. Perhaps God’s Word reveals in our hearts a habit that should be abandoned as it pulls us from God. Maybe we see that we are entangled in the affairs of this life (2 Timothy 2:4). We look into God’s Word, and God reveals a needed change, but we do nothing. Hearing is good, but what a wasted opportunity to be a hearer and not a doer of the Word!
“But whoso looketh…and continueth…shall be blessed in his deed.”
However, if we look into God’s Word, the perfect law of liberty, and we continue in it and meditate on it (allowing it to work a change in us), then we become a doer of the Word. Not only do we hear the truth, but we also make the change. This is the blessing God has for us! We need to set the conditions in our heart to be able to receive the engrafted Word, and then we need to be a doer of that Word. It stands to reason that if we had more doers, we would get more done. We say, “Many hands make light work.” This saying is only true when the many hands are working on the work to be done. If we had churches full of Christians not just hearing God’s Word only but actually doing it, we could really accomplish something wonderful for the cause of Christ! Just imagine churches full of Christians who sought deeply the Word of God and heeded God’s instruction! What a light we would be in the darkness of this world! Imagine in your own life if you were a doer of the Word that you hear. What kind of difference would that make in you? Do you want the blessing promised in James 1:25? Be a doer of the Word, not a hearer only.